Atlanta's Metro Pop. growth increases from year before -- Nearly +89k (Columbus: 2015, how much)

[Ant131531]

Census data hasn't officially come in yet on the official website, but a local Austin news website has posted a map with all estimates of metro areas.

NAME: Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA
2013 Pop. Estimate: 5525432
2014 Pop. Estimate:: 5614323
2014 Pop. Change: 88891
Percent Change: 1.61%

Source: Austin Metro, Hays County among fastest-growing in U.S. | KXAN.com

Much higher than the 65k growth from the year before. I expect this number to increase to over 100k again by next year's data release with the booming job growth.

[Airforceguy]

These are quite impressive numbers. I'm glad to see Metro ATL posting such large gains. These numbers become even more impressive when you add in the growth of Gainesville/Hall County which gained 3,000 people last year and Athens-Clarke which added 1,132 people. So the Greater Atlanta-Gainesville-Athens CSA gained 93,025 people last year. A few surprises though with these numbers. I expected Fulton to break 1 milion in these estimates, but the population according to these estimates is only 996,319. I'm pretty sure Fulton broke 1 million at some point last year, but we will have to wait until next year to see by how much. Also Clayton County put up some healthy numbers growing by 2,700 people, bringing their total to 267,542. This was impressive to me considering the year before Clayton lost a little over 1,000 residents. I'm also a little surprised to see Athens-Clarke lose population. While it wasn't a large loss, I believe its their first in a long time.

[JoeP]

CSA stuff is pretty insignificant as they are for most metros (except the ones where they are true multi cities connected). Fulton didn't quite make it to 1 million yet, but it's very close and will jump past it when next year's estimates come out.

[Mutiny77]

At this point in time, Fulton County is almost certainly over 1 million.

[afdinatl]

Add me. I just moved ITP. This 13 min Marta commute is amazing

[jsvh]

Originally Posted by afdinatl

Add me. I just moved ITP. This 13 min Marta commute is amazing

[AtlantaIsHot]

Originally Posted by JoeP

CSA stuff is pretty insignificant as they are for most metros (except the ones where they are true multi cities connected). Fulton didn't quite make it to 1 million yet, but it's very close and will jump past it when next year's estimates come out.

Did you just decide that CSA's don't matter?? From whom does your authority derive to decide it?

CSA's are determined by cross-commuting between them. They also don't HAVE to travel to downtown Atlanta. All they have to do is travel to a "core" county in a metro. There are significant numbers of people in Hall county that are commuting to Gwinnett. There are likely numbers of people in Clarke doing the same. There are likely people in eastern Gwinnett traveling into Athens as well. It's not all about commuting either. Social and cultural ties apply as well. When people in Hall county tell people where they are from, no one knows or has heard of it much. Then they say "it's not far from Atlanta" and then people will say "ohhhhhhh, now I get it." There is a string of development going up I-985 to Gainesville. Seen from the air, you can't tell where Buford stops and Gainesville starts. It's going to be absorbed.

Contrary to what most people believe, most of the people in Gwinnett are *not* travelling to Atlanta. They are living and working within the county.

[JoeP]

Did you just decide that CSA's don't matter?? From whom does your authority derive to decide it?

They have a purpose, but people cling to them as a city's population and way too often they include far flung fringes that are not representative of a city's population. They are similar to various business market definitions that cast wide nets for the purpose of capturing a radius.

SA's are determined by cross-commuting between them. They also don't HAVE to travel to downtown Atlanta. All they have to do is travel to a "core" county in a metro.

I understand how they are defined, thanks.

[Clayton white guy]

The "live and work" in the same community is true in Gwinnett and North Fulton and some what true in Cobb as well. Still, as evidenced by traffic congestion, there are many people commuting from Gwinnett and North Fulton at least "toward town" even if their workplace is at Perimeter Center.

[AtlantaIsHot]

Other important notes to make from the new data is the Midwestern cities' continued slowdowns. Detroit has slowed to nothing and Cleveland continues to decline. Minneapolis is again the Midwest's biggest gainer but Columbus is coming on strong. Cincinnati barely budged. Pittsburgh dropped. St. Louis and Kansas City barely eeked out gains. Milwaukee barely budged. The biggest surprise is the big slowdown in Chicago's growth. It barely grew as well, adding only 9,800-down from 25,000 the previous year. If this continues, it could go into abject DECLINE over the next few years and become just another declining/no-growth Midwestern city as it was in the 1960's-1980's (Chicago's entire metropolitan growth in the 1980's was under 2%). Nothing in the Midwest came close to Sunbelt cities. While Columbus and Minneapolis-St. Paul grew around 30,000 or so and Chicago added 9,800, they were crushed by the Sunbelt as Houston added 156,000, Dallas-Ft. Worth added 131,000, Atlanta added 89,000, Miami added 66,000, and Washington added 66,000.

Big power shifts are happening before our very eyes.